the village idiot

No worries Paul, your post is very much 'on topic'. I'm surprised that large amounts of ride creation would be deemed unacceptable anywhere. You do need a big woodland to go to the scale that we have but extensive ride creation (particularly ride edge) is generally very much encouraged in my experience. It would be a shame if there is regional variation on this. There is something very wrong in deepest darkest Devon if conservation organisations are not taking into account all their protected species. Obviously I can't really comment any further than that, not having first hand knowledge of your area. There are always frustrations like this popping up in life. Probably best to continue in the best way you can, set a great example and concentrate on what you can control?

I totally understand all your concerns on the protected species issue. My advice would be to not lose too much sleep over it. We have quite a range of protected species in our Wood including Dormice, Bats and Great Crested Newts, but as you have seen from the thread we have not had to go 'over easy' on our management decisions. The authorities want sustainable woodland management to thrive. If you know that your Wood is home to rare and protected wildlife you do have an obligation to take their presence into account. It is good practice to do a brief visual survey of any area you intend to carry out work in and make a written note of the fact that the important species have been taken into consideration in your plan of action. This will give you some comeback in the event of any questioning. If your aim is to manage sustainably and you're not taking endangered species into account then it would probably be fair enough for your actions to be questioned. Natural England are viewed by some as spoil sports but they really are pro management. They are well aware that one habitat type we are certainly not short of is unmanaged woodland. Proceed with a considered level of due diligence and you should be fine.

That's not too bad for an all in price. I didn't realise that your original quote included the VAT.

Thanks very much rowan. I'm chuffed there are still some of you checking in with what has become a rather monster thread! I remember seeing some pictures of your woody work in the past. I think it's great that you choose to spend some of your free time doing this. Don't hold back from putting some pictures up on this thread, I'm sure we'd all like to see how you are getting on. I wonder if, with your geology knowledge, you might be able to help me out when I eventually get around to soils? They are arguably the most important constituent of any woodland, but not my strong point when it comes to knowledge. Does your work extend to soils or is it mainly concerned with what lies beneath?

An update on our mysterious spider friend from Juliet. Graham and Steve, So in one hour this is the response ... (lots of likes and wow faces!!). This is a very good find and I will submit it as a record. Do you have an approximate grid ref and if you can pinpoint the site, I can check it out at another time of year and you can keep your eyes out for more!! The general consensus is that it is one of two Meta (cave spider) species - either species would be a good find. The books say microscopic examination of genitalia is necessary to confirm identification. And like I thought the black colour is misleading and masking some of the true patterning. But ... I’m definitely leaning towards Meta bourneti, the Nationally Scarce (a Red Data Book definition) one .... for the following reasons: · Although both similar habitat, my geek spider book specifically says “it has been recorded from ancient woodland sites where it may be associated with large, ancient trees with hollow trunks. .... also recorded from the interior of abandoned WW2 pillboxes and burial vaults in Highgate Cemetery, London, and also underground culverts and inspection chambers.” It has been recorded at Minsmere. · Distribution map shows Suffolk being a stronghold for this species whilst the other one is not recorded in Suffolk. Keep interesting finds coming with good pics showing some diagnostic features! The facebook phone a friend world is amazing for helping with this kind of stuff now. Scroll down for comments. Juliet

Oh, that's good!?

TREE JACK. One of the most frustrating events in the woods is getting a tree hung up. This happens when you don't manage to get your hinge lined up properly and the tree you are felling falls into a neighbouring tree rather than onto the ground. Sometimes a tree is leaning over in such a way that you really have no choice but to fell it into another tree. Hung up trees are difficult, time consuming and somewhat dangerous to get down. There are various ways of tackling a hung up tree but your best option is to not let it happen in the first place. A tree jack is your best friend here. We were using ours today so I took the opportunity to take a picture. A tree jack is simply an extending pole with a flat foot at the base and a toothed gripper at the top. It is extended using the windy handle thingy on the side. It is very useful for encouraging trees to fall in the opposite direction from the one they would naturally take. It's also good for trees that you can't quite decide which way it wants to go. To use it, you lean the jack against the stem pointing in the direction you want the tree to fall. You give it a few winds until it is under tension. You then do your normal felling cuts, leaving a slightly bigger hinge than normal so the tree remains standing. You then wind the handle which extends the jack until the tree starts to go over. You then make like a tree and leave. The tree jack is excellent for slight 'back leaners' or trees on the edge of a compartment that you want to make sure fall into the coup. If the tree is big and heavy the foot of the jack has a tendency to sink down into the ground. You can counter this by sticking a log ring under the foot or securing a strong strap under the foot and around the base of the tree (under the gob obviously). This stops the jack from sinking or sliding backwards. These tree jacks come in a variety of different sizes. The one in the picture is mid-range. They are amazingly strong but I can assure you that they can be bent if put in the hands of someone who has occasionally been known to push their luck.? They can be used in conjunction with felling wedges to manipulate particularly stubborn stems. I probably wouldn't use the jack on a stem I thought had a chance of barber chairing. You do have to be positioned directly behind the tree to wind the handle. Always safer to be off to the side in these scenarios. Good quality tree jacks are quite expensive but incredibly useful bits of kit. If anyone fancies a free one they can come and find my original jack which the woodland claimed as it's own a couple of years back. I have a sneaky suspicion that a gang of delinquent stoats had away with it. They are crafty little devils.

I'll have a look tomorrow. I've got our zoology wizard Juliet on the case too. Thanks for all the suggestions. Cupboard spider is a good shout but it doesn't look quite right.

It's my hand actually. I was picking up brash when he brought it to show me. Steve has a much better camera on his phone so I held the spider whilst he took the photos.

Slight diversion, but Steve found this amazing fella inside a rotted out poplar today. We've never seen a spider quite like it in the woods before. We wondered if it might be a False Widow? Anyone out there good on their spiders?

I buy mine from Bag Supplies Ltd.

That sounds quite a lot to me. I tend to buy 150 or 200 at a time. For 200 they worked out at £5.60 a bag plus £35 carriage. Perhaps there is a healthy discount for larger orders. Did your quote include the VAT?

If he takes a car up there without my permission he'll have much more than a broken bumper to worry about.? I'm a pretty placid guy, but anyone messes up our rides, they're toast! Funnily enough, I drive an XC70 too.

They look good! Can a person drag a log with one or are they best used with two people as you describe?

TIMBER TONGS and SAPIE Two of the most frequently used tools without an engine are the very simple but incredibly useful timber tongs and sapies (aka log picks, aka hookaroons). If you are the type of forester who doesn't feel manly enough without a hefty tool belt round your waist, one of your dangly bits will almost certainly be a set of timber tongs. These are a very simple device composed of a few pieces of steel joined with rivets so they can swivel against each other, with a handle on top. If the tongs are lowered onto a log and then lifted, the spikes on the ends of the arms dig into the log resulting in tongs and log being lifted as one. The weight of the log keeps an inward pressure on the spikes, maintaining the grip. It probably doesn't sound like this is much of a labour saver but it is. Having to constantly bend down to ground level to get your hands under a log for lifting takes it's toll after a while. The handle of the tongs is also a lot easier to grip than the underside of a slippery log. Below are a couple of images of our volunteer group making good use of the timber tongs. You'll have to zoom in fairly if you are viewing this on a phone. The 'two person' tongs work on the same principal but allow you to lift or drag significantly heavier bits of wood. See if you can spot the sapie in picture 1! The chap helping me in the picture above is called Steve, but it's not Steve. The Steve you can see here is our woodland chef. On volunteer day lunchtimes he cooks up a gargantuan bbq. Progress tends to slow markedly in the afternoons! A sapie is an even simpler tool. It is basically just a slightly curved point on the end of a stick. It performs a similar function to timber tongs in that it can hold onto a log for lifting or dragging and saves a lot more grunt than you would think. They come in a variety of lengths, each suited to slightly different log handling situations. It is easy to get over cocky with a sapie as I found to my cost. I was picking up a collection of very short sections of hazel, jabbing each one in turn with the sapie and transferring them to my other hand for chucking into a bag. As I got more proficient at it I started to pick up speed. This was all fine and dandy until the sapie failed to spike into a log. My brain was on autopilot and so continued to instruct my sapie hand to swing across to my empty log receiving hand. Instead of encountering a nice rounded edge of hazel log my expectant palm took a direct hit from the point of the empty sapie. I won't go into all the fine details, suffice to say it took a bit of pulling out! As long as you stay focussed and set your pace to 'steady' the sapie (as well as the significantly more docile timber tongs) are very worthwhile and inexpensive additions to your woodland management tool kits. A sapie is a particularly good tool for lifting log rings onto a splitter. Unfortunately, and rather predictably, I have managed to lose both of mine so we use the timber tongs instead.

We haven't run the brushcutter since going over to Alkylate fuel but yes, we will use this for all our two stroke engines in the future. I think I read on this forum that you can get an issue with rubber seals when you move from regular fuel to Alkylate. We'll cross that bridge if we come to it. It is so much nicer using Alkylate fuel in a closed coppice environment. I can't see us ever going back to regular petrol.

Ah yes, I remember. Was the cottage already there when you made the purchase? A dwelling within a woodland is a rare thing. It must make a lovely home.

Yes, we have a chain swipe for the alpine. Even though the tractor can get most places, it can't get everywhere. Sometimes the brushcutter is the only tool for the job. Quite often the brushcutter is the first port of call in an area, then it is maintained into the future with a tractor mower once we can get at and remove closely packed trees etc.

Too true! There is no public access in the Wood so canine clearouts are not too much of a problem thankfully. We get a few 'right to roamers' with their dogs but there's not much we can do about that. We do have some plans for getting more people into the wood in a controlled fashion. More on this in the 'social forestry' sections to come.

BRUSHCUTTER. One of the other engine powered 'small' tools that we use a lot is a brushcutter. Primarily we use this for clearing bramble to give us access to trees we want to take out. Up until recently it was also the tool we used to mow the ride edges (before the stumps were removed). We also use the brushcutter for keeping an open margin around the newly restored ponds, it is a bit treacherous taking a tractor mower right up to the edge of the water. Below is an early picture (2013) of a small pond after being opened up with my ancient Komatsu brushcutter. You can see one of the last stands of conifer in the background. The small diameter Alder and Ash lengths were destined for the charcoal kiln. Since this picture was taken I have upgraded to a couple of larger machines that can plough their way through surprisingly large material. In a woodland environment I would not like to be without the cow horn type handles. You often hit old stumps hidden in the undergrowth and the cow horns give you more control. The harness is also must. It transfers the majority of the weight of the machine to your back and hips whilst also allowing for safer operation. The guard positioned 'upshaft' of the cutting blade does sometimes get in the way, but it is highly advisable to keep it on as brushcutters have a fondness for flinging up wood and stones towards the operator at very high speed. We always wear our chainsaw helmets when brushcutting. By far the best blade we have found for woodland work is the 'mulching' type. This is a largely flat metal blade with two or three prongs that are turned down through 90 degrees at the ends. These mulching blades are fantastic on bramble but also cope well with grass and small saplings. We have found that the only time we need to swap blades over is when the old mulching blade wears out and we need to put a new one on. A clearing saw is basically just a slightly more powerful brushcutter. These are often used in forestry for spacing stands of young trees (essentially just a very early thinning). It is very rare to use a stimmer line head on a clearing saw. A brushcutter can use either a blade or a strimmer line head. It is probably not wise to put a blade on a dedicated strimmer. These are just general rules. There is a fair amount of crossover between strimmers, brushcutters and clearing saws, people tend to just use the name they like the sound of best. Ask your machinery dealer for advice on the best tool for your particular circumstances.

We use Oregon Arborol. I don't know about the rules for SSSI's. You may well be right.

Thanks woodland dweller. We need something to do in the summer months when it is too hot for forestry cutting. Adding value to the resource by processing it is a good option for us. It's not hard work either. We enjoy the process as we get to catch up on our audiobooks. I take your point on customers' log quality savvyness, but feel it is still good to produce a quality product. If people receive good logs they will come back for more and the market will remain buoyant. Crappy logs might well cause customers to rely more heavily on fossil fuel heating. There will always be poor quality logs out there but I don't want to contribute to the problem. Do you literally dwell in a woodland?

Whatever you do, don't let Kevin get a hold of that post! He's just turned my innocent polite enquiry on another thread into a dirty joke.

Stunning! Have you seen his videos in the Scottish mountains and across the rooftops somewhere Mediterranean looking?

CHAINSAWS. Far and away the most necessary weapon in the woodland manager's arsenal is the chainsaw. It would be impossible to be viable at what we do without one (or even better, several). There is a small band of woodland managers who are attempting to go back to the 'old ways', only using hand tools. I have no desire to join this club. My desire is to see much more woodland under active management and this requires engines. Whilst it must be lovely working in the woods with only the sound of a ringing axe and birdsong in your ears I can see no viable future in forestry without powered cutting machines. Chainsaws are horrible noisy things but an absolute must if your aim is to make a significant difference. Pretty much every aspect of our operations utilises a chainsaw (maybe not the paperwork, although occasionally I have been tempted!). Practical woodland management is largely concerned with cutting wood into smaller and smaller pieces. This is what chainsaws are built for and they are very good at it. We don't find that we have to use huge saws. Most of my time is spent on a 50cc saw with a 15'' bar. Steve prefers a 60cc saw which has a little more power but starts to get heavy after a while. A 50-60cc saw with a 15'-18'' bar is more than capable of felling, snedding and crosscutting pretty much any small to medium sized stem, plus you can wield it all day. If you find you have a large amount of monster trees then you would benefit from a bigger saw with a longer bar. I won't go into the mechanics of making chainsaw cuts. Most of you will be all too familiar with this. It is very important to have the relevant training for any scenario's you are likely to encounter. This is as much to protect you from the tree as from the saw. Most injuries sustained in the woodland are from blunt trauma rather than chainsaw cuts. Trees, whether standing or on the ground are subject to a multitude of different tensions and compressions which can release violently when cut. Always position yourself out of harms way. You get much better at judging tensions and compressions with experience. In the early days be prepared for getting your saw stuck a lot. A second saw is highly advisable to get you out of trouble. In a well trained pair of hands, being controlled by a brain that is focussed, a chainsaw should not do you any harm. The speed with which they cut actually means that you are oftentimes safer than if you were using non powered tools to fell a tree. It can't be stressed enough though that concentration and adequate training are key. Things can, and will go wrong in the blink of an eye and you always need to make sure that you are positioned in such a way as to avoid coming to harm. Always wear your protective equipment as very occasionally accidental saw to body contact is unavoidable. Chainsaws have two stroke engines. This means that they run on petrol with an oil additive to lubricate the engine. We have recently switched over to alkylate fuel. This is a cleaner burning derivative of standard petrol production. It is reportedly better for the saw, your lungs and the environment but is considerably more expensive than standard unleaded. Battery powered saws are getting better but are not yet good enough to get you through a heavy day in the forest. A chainsaw also uses oil to lubricate the cutting bar. This oil ends up being liberally sprayed around your work area. As we are in a sensitive habitat we use a vegetable based oil which is fully biodegradable. There is truly huge reservoir of information on chainsaws on this forum so I'll leave my introduction to them at that, suffice to say that if you are ever contemplating setting up as an active woodland manager, get one!